BarCamp Congo will be the first BarCamp in the Republic of Congo and in Central Africa. It will take place on December 23, 2008, at the French Cultural Center in Brazzaville from 19:00-23:00 GMT. This event will last an evening, is free and open to all participants. There will be presentations, lectures, discussions and meetings on subjects of interest to the Congolese technology community.

We recently had the pleasure to interview Verone Mankou, one of its main organizers, via email.

Tell us a little about yourself

My name is Verone Mankou. I'm 22 years old, and an assistant in IT for Thierry Moungala, Congolese Minister of Telecoms and ICT. I have been a blogger for 5 years, and a developer (I make applications for web, Windows and smartphones), a former coder for French search engine Keyforin, and founder of Africa news aggregator Akouaba, my new project! That's all!

Can you give us a picture of the technology scene in the Congo and central Africa in general?

The current state of ICT in Congo and central Africa in general demonstrates that there is not yet a coherent policy for these technologies to support the development of our countries.

Despite this, we can be satisfied with the high penetration of GSM mobile (for example in the Congo there are more than 1,000,000 subscribers). The Internet has had difficulty entering the home because of several factors:

• lack of quality infrastructure to introduce broadband
• lack of incentives for the purchase of equipment at reasonable cost
• shortage of companies specializing in Internet business
• lack of content from Central Africa on the Net
• lack of political extension of ICT among people interested
• legal and regulatory framework hinders ICT in most of these countries

Tell us about BarCamp Congo - what made you decide to do it? Who is organizing it? Who will be attending?

BarCamp Congo has three objectives:

1. Disseminate the concept of barcamps in Congo
2. Identify innovative projects
3. Cultivate goodwill to bring about some relevant projects

BarCamp Congo is organized by the Committee for the Promotion of Information Technology in Congo (COPTIC), of which I am a member. The committee comprises officials and enterprises of the ICT sector.

Will there be any keynote speakers?

We have three confirmed persons who will speak during the first part of BarCamp Congo. I'll talk about microblogging and social networking; Mr. Alain Ndalla, the president of COPTIC, will talk about Congolese content on the web; and Mr. Patrice Noumazalaye, vice president of COPTIC, will talk about the importance of a local internet exchange point.

What topics are being proposed for sessions?

For this first edition, we will have just two sessions: the first about Congolese content projects, and the second about microblogging, blogging, social networking and web 2.0 services.

Where do you see the technology and business environment in Central Africa 5 years from now?

Already ministers of this sector are meeting here at Brazzaville to harmonize the legal and regulatory framework for ICT. We will soon have an environment conducive to business development in the sector, and the economic environment is being cleaned up.

One of the main objectives of BarCamp Congo is to increase Internet content from central Africa, so we hope there will be a lot more of that in five years.

How can we find out more or participate from afar in BarCamp Congo?

Now it is difficult to participate from afar, because here we have some infrastructure problems, but if you really want to participate we invite you to come to Congo -- what do you want to talk about? It will be fun!

Get more info on the BarCamp Congo blog. Or read about it [in French] at Cipaco.